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Teacher knowledge, training and the potential role of Professional Learning Communities in schools.

1/25/2016

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I am posting this in response to a recent post by Rob Pepper on Labour Teachers about the importance of subject knowledge for teachers. Pepper raises the question of how subject knowledge might be embedded as part of teachers' professional learning. My response is adapted from a small scale literature review conducted a few years ago. It is centred around the potential use of the concept of Professional Learning Communities as a vehicle for developing history teachers' subject knowledge and pedagogical understanding. In particular it explores how PLCs can provide springboards for schools seeking to place subject knowledge and subject specific pedagogy at the heart of professional learning. Equally there is a focus on the pitfalls of PLCs when implemented badly, and how they may in fact reinforce the genericism which already exists in many professional learning programmes.

I am not looking to draw specific lessons from this piece, but it may be of interest to schools, or indeed history departments, exploring the Professional Learning Community approach to developing their CPD. I have drawn a few key basic points from the literature for those with limited time:
  1. There is has been, and continues to be, a crisis over the provision of effective, subject focused, professional learning in teaching, and specifically in history departments.
  2. Professional learning can be effectively encouraged through Professional Learning Communities.
  3. Effective Professional Learning Communities are based on shared knowledge, routines and pedagogies. They are therefore ideally suited to departmental level professional learning and can place subject specific training back at the heart of teacher learning.
  4. Professional Learning Communities can be imposed from the top-down, but such PLCs are often resisted and therefore do not provide the benefits of genuinely organic PLCs.
  5. Professional Learning Communities which are cross-curricular or generic in their approaches generally enjoy less support than those which engage with a specific subject.
  6. When they are effective, Professional Learning Communities encourage teachers to be critical of their own practice and engage in activities which stretch and challenge their approaches to teaching. This in turn can have positvie effects of teachers' feelings of self-efficacy and student outcomes.
  7. The creation of networks of Professional Learning Communities has the potential to transform and improve the whole profession and can be done by anyone at any level.

Context

PictureA good diagram always makes something seem like a good idea in education.
Continuing Professional Development and professional learning are complex terms (Day & Sachs, 2004). Both are loaded with myriad meanings, and there is still no clear definition of either.  In 2001, the DfEE released a major strategy document for CPD. This document set out the government’s aims for professional learning in English schools, a vision which notably blurred the definitions of professional development and professional learning (DfEE, 2001). A second publication in 2005, placed even more emphasis on the creation of effective CPD by schools, stating that its purpose was “…increasing teachers’ skills, knowledge and understanding…” (DfES, 2005, p. 4). Furthermore, recent government reforms have seen an increasing amount of teacher training shifted into so-called “Teaching Schools”. Yet despite this very explicit focus on the role of schools in improving provision for professional learning, by 2006 Ofsted were still led to report that CPD opportunities in many secondary school departments were “wholly unsatisfactory…far more needs to be made available” (Ofsted, 2006, p. 4). It might well be assumed then, that many of the strategies implemented by schools during the course of the early twenty-first century had little impact in improving the quality of provision of professional learning in English schools.

This literature review is a response to general criticisms of professional learning, outlined above, as well as a the 2011 Ofsted report, History for All (Ofsted, 2011), which set out the shortcomings of professional learning in history departments nationwide. The report noted that “an important issue [in recent history inspections] was the near-absence of appropriate subject training.” (Ofsted, 2011, p. 42) and went on to highlight the discovery that “…in the 65 schools visited…[subject training] was good or outstanding in only 15 of them.” (Ofsted, 2011, p. 42). The language here is vague; however the core point is hammered home with statistical precision. In one institution for example, there had been no subject specific professional development offered to staff for seven years (Ofsted, 2011). These findings clearly present stark challenges to history departments looking to improve their practice.

Over the last few years, many schools have made moves to bring their professional learning in-house (Woodcock, 2011). This approach is fairly common and it is unsurprising that this has come at a time when reducing budgets is paramount (Woodcock, 2011). In one case I explored in some detail, Robwood High (a high achieveing secondary - name changed) began a programme of establishing “Professional Learning Communities” (PLCs) to provide in-house CPD. The PLCs were given the purpose of fostering cross-curricular, collegiate approaches to CPD as a surrogate for bringing in external expertise.  The PLCs at Robwood focused on improving teaching and learning across the school through a shared focus on Assessment for Learning (AfL). The challenge with this model of professional learning is twofold. First, the expertise must be available within the school already. Focussing too heavily on internal expertise runs the risk of encouraging conservatism and removing the challenge provided by external sources (Pendry, et al., 1998). The second issue whether or not such approaches to CPD allow all teachers to develop appropriately in response to their professional and subject specific needs.


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Fri-deas - Weekend Inspiration for Trainees

1/22/2016

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So this week I have gone for a giant picture because I am a little short of Frideas... Never-the-less, thanks to those people who sent in something which they did this week which worked really well.



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Book Review: Contested Plains by Elliott West

1/17/2016

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On the surface Elliott West's "Contested Plains" seems to address a much explored period of history, namely the Colorado Gold Rush of te 1850s. Whilst the book does an admirable job of explaining the conflict which eventually led to the formation of Colorado, the scope of this work is so much bigger.

West uses the story of the Colorado Gold Rush as as lens through which to examine the vast story of settlement and conflict on the Great Plains. Echoing the work of Turner, West asks us to consider the role of the Plains in shaping the destinies of those who have settled there. Unlike Turner however, West's Plains are not fixed and unchanging, but dynamic and shifting. He asks us to understand how different cultures' visions of the Plains have fundamentally shaped how they have been approached: the Spanish who saw them as worthless desert, the Cheyennes who viewed them as a the key to a new nomadic lifestyle, and of course the White Americans for whom the sparkle of gold caused them to see the West as a land of opportunity. In doing this, West also explains why conflict began: not the result of an every shifting frontier, but the end product of two competing, flawed, and ultimately irreconcilable views of the Plains.

West expertly combines the larger ecological narrative and the human stories which illuminate this period so poignantly. In doing so, he moves beyond traditional retellings of the Indian Wars of the 1850s-70s. There is no time here for Turnerian heros shaping the land to their will, nor indeed for peace-loving Indians, perfectly in tune with nature. The Sand Creek massacre and the death of Black Kettle are no less moving because they are not wrapped in a layer of post-colonial guilt. Indeed, the people in West's Colorado are far more real than Dee Brown's martyrs and villains. Every person in West's narrative has their own motivation, their own unique fortes and flaws, their own visions shaping and molding their thoughts and actions. The attention West pays to this aspect is what makes the book such a moving and important piece of history. Every character is a human being.

Anyone interested in the story of the Gold Rush, indeed anyone interested in the history of America and its place in the world today, should read this book. A lively, engaging, thought provoking, and ultimately ground-breaking approach to understaning the American West.
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Fri-deas: Weekend Inspiration for Trainee History Teachers

1/15/2016

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Welcome to the cheesily-named Fri-deas (yes, I was insanely proud of that). This is a micro-blog for trainee history teachers (and other interested parties) to share one idea that really worked well during the week. The idea is that these will become ways to inspire each other for lessons for the coming week.

Fri-deas can literally be anything...Getting excited about a great idea for a big enquiry you have had. Telling us about the fantastic and meaningful outcome task you have just taken in. Explaining how you have managed to successfully explain something historically complex. Letting us into an historical nugget you have unearthed which really got your kids talking. The sky is the limit.

Fri-deas don't have to be super long - ideally they are little, readable chunks of inspiration. Most importantly, we need to know:
  • which class you did this with
  • how it fitted into the learning sequence
  • how and why you think it went so well
  • if possible - grab a quick picture of the outcome and send it in too.
So, without any more of me rattling on - this week's selection of LTU Fri-deas. Thanks to everyone who sent something in - it was a tiny bit light this week, so please do send them over. Why not vote for you favourite in the comments below?


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